hiredgun

Yes, I mentioned the West Bank as a place where this kind of indoctrination exists (as I'm sure there is in Gaza, though I haven't been there myself). I am certain that there are other pockets of this extremism as well.

For one, I don't agree with Huntington's idea that these 'civilizational' boundaries are valid ways to look at our world today. But putting that aside: more importantly, to say that "Islamic civilization" is becoming " more backward and hate filled" every day is simply and demonstrably false. Even among the Gulf countries, whose regimes I am staunchly against, some progress is being made, the recent granting of suffrage to women in Kuwait and the establishment of the franchise in Saudi Arabia being prominent examples. Egypt has undergone significant liberalization; while the recent, imperfect rounds of multi-party presidential and then parliamentary elections are a small example, more significant are the substantial developments in freedom of the press and freedom of expression, which I have seen firsthand.

By way of example: currently there is a large camp of Sudanese refugees occupying a public square in Mohandiseen, a bustling part of Cairo. They have been there, camped out in tents and lean-tos, for over a month, protesting near the UNHCR building and demanding better treatment for Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Under Egyptian law (the country has been operating under an 'emergency law' for years) the police could easily have dismantled the protest by force, but the refugees have not been touched. I've been there, and met with them. Even they are surprised at the stance of the authorities.

My point is that while "Islamic civilization" may be perceived as 'backwards' by Western standards, to say that it is becoming more backwards is simply false.

The idea that Muslims are hate-filled (which is implied by your propostion that "Islamic civilization" is somehow hate-filled, and becoming more so on a daily basis) is also a gross misperception. As I said, I've been to the West Bank, and as an American I was treated with nothing but hospitality, as was my friend and fellow traveler, an American Jew, of all things. During my stay here in Egypt, I have spoken with Egyptians of all stripes (well-off, poor, educated, illiterate, urban, rural) about the West, and while the majority have issues with what they perceive as Western policy (examples: the unfairness of the war in Iraq; the dangers of unilateralism and america's role as the world's policeman; the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib) no one's views have approached anything close to "hate" of the West. No one has condoned terrorism, though many have drawn moral equivalency between terrorist attacks and what they percieve as American 'warmongering', while solidly condemning both. Whether or not these political views are logically valid is beside the point: telling their children to blow themselves up has been the last thing on anyone's mind. I have spent time in Pakistan, which is internationally famous for its "madrasas", mostly Saudi-funded. These schools certainly exist and I won't deny that they are problematic, but the majority of Pakistanis do not receive an extremist education and are not religious extremists in their outlook.

Consider the massive demonstrations in Amman the day after the recent hotel bombings. Does Jordanian society appear to you to be violent and hate-filled, or supportive of terrorism? Indeed, if it were the case, why would al-Qaeda target parts of "Islamic civilization" in the first place? The global Islamic terrorist phenomenon is fundamentally an anti-state movement. It may be a movement populated by adherents of a particular faith, but it does not represent Islam nor "Islamic civilization".

My point in conveying these personal experiences is that what you perceive as a "hate filled Islamic civilization" only represents a small minority of Muslims living in the Muslim world, and your idea that these two 'civilizations' are at war with one another is a misunderstanding that might have tragic consequences.